Singer Kim Jang Hoon Speaks Up About BTS And Japanese Controversies

Veteran singer Kim Jang Hoon has criticized the way a Japanese magazine has been dealing with BTS’s recent controversies.

Previously, BTS’s appearance on a Japanese music program was postponed, due to Jimin wearing a t-shirt with a graphic of an atomic bomb detonating in Japan. The group was also swept up in another controversy when a Jewish human rights group raised issue with a photo shoot showing RM wearing a hat with a symbol of the Nazi party, and the group performing at a concert where flags with symbols similar to the swastika were used.

Both the t-shirt designer and stylist for the photo shoot shared that there were no political intentions in the use of the t-shirt or hat. Big Hit Entertainment also released an official statement where they accepted responsibility for the issues, and clarified that there was no ill intent behind the use of the materials.

Read Kim Jang Hoon’s full statement below:

“I was going to just concentrate on my concerts, let things run their course, and live my life as a musician. I held it in, and I held it in, but I can’t hold it in anymore.

“I’m writing this long statement regarding Japan’s recent atrocities against BTS. I’m not writing this as a personal opinion, but from a historical objective truth, universal common logic, and humanistic point of view. I will be uploading the facts tomorrow at 12 p.m. in Korean, English, and Japanese, to let the whole world know and to rebuke Japan’s rudeness and farfetchedness as facts.

“I will let it be known that they are adapting it to a different country’s version [of history].

“A Japanese magazine is demanding an explanation from BTS, but in what kind of case does the aggressor demand an explanation from the victim?

“Those are rough protests… Japan, who is the aggressor but is pretending to be the victim, going above nationalism, they are using imperialism. Let’s not make this sentimental or emotional, but use logic to talk tomorrow.

“As a preview, let me just say share one thing.

“The 731st unit was a Japanese chemical military unit stationed in Harbin. Called Maruta, the unit committed the cruelest acts in human history as they performed all sorts of brutal vivisection experiments, freezing experiments, and more.

“From 1940, 3,000 Koreans, Chinese, Russians, Mongolians, and others were sacrificed. It was revealed that even after [Japan’s] defeat, 150 people were executed for fear that the existence of the 731st unit would be made known.

“Not under the supervision of affected countries like Korea or China, U.S. military investigators in Tokyo wrote the report in 1947 and recorded the cruel actions that are extremely difficult to believe as a human being.

“It’s because those responsible for the 731st unit exchanged the truth of the 731st unit’s brutality for exoneration.

“Yet that country’s prime minister rides a fighter plane with ‘731’ openly written on it, with a smile and his thumbs up.

“And they say that it was a coincidence… Can they not read Arabic numerals?

“I’ll see you all tomorrow. Their magazine that demands an explanation, I will give one. Write it exactly as it’s so.

“Don’t bring out their forte.. the forte that distorts everything that is disadvantageous to them.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. This was Korean singer Kim Jang Hoon.”

As promised, the singer later uploaded more facts regarding Japanese imperialism, pointed out controversies involving Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and ended with a plea for world peace.